


Help, there's a Spider-man in my bed!

by Mizzy



Series: Spideytorch [5]
Category: Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Spider-Man (Comicverse)
Genre: 5 Times, Angst, Comedy, Family, M/M, Marriage Proposal, back from the dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 16:33:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5097524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mizzy/pseuds/Mizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or, 5 times one of the Fantastic Four find Spider-man in Johnny's bedroom (and 1 time they all do.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Help, there's a Spider-man in my bed!

**Author's Note:**

> Covers Johnny's death, but also afterwards.

* * *

 

**1.**

"This," Johnny says, "is not how I normally get people into my bed."

Spider-man looks up at him sourly. Well, Johnny assumes it's a sour expression. The mask hides a lot.

It's kind of hilarious, despite the devastation and the fact that Johnny will need yet another new bed — Spider-man is splayed out on a heap of plaster and rubble among his bed's remains and his bedroom is covered in dust. Johnny looks up over his destroyed bed and through a hole that pierces through at least six floors of the Baxter Building. Reed waves sheepishly from his laboratory.

"Reed's stupid new pulse ray is _stupid,_ " Spider-man moans. "Remind me never to let him experiment rays on me again?"

"This really is not normally how I get moaning people into my bed," Johnny says.

Spider-man throws a chunk of ceiling at Johnny and rubs at his butt as he climbs out of the ruined mess of Reed's latest volatile invention, limping in obvious pain.

"That often happens when people get _out_ of my bed, though," Johnny says, pointing at the butt-rubbing and leering outrageously.

Spider-man yelps and throws another piece of plaster at him.

* * *

 

 

**2.**

Reed is the one to find Spider-man hiding under Johnny's bed.

Reed crosses his arms, resisting the urge to knot them several times. "Explain yourself," Reed commands, as Spider-man sheepishly crawls out from under Johnny's bed. Spider-man plucks a discarded sock from his shoulder and throws it behind him.

"You know how I kissed Sue and everything," Spider-man starts, and Reed shudders, because yes, that happened, and yes, the mental image of it is still burning his brain. Even if it had been necessary, _nooooooo._ Reed's brain is still screaming. "So I decided I needed to hide from Johnny."

"And you thought hiding in his _bedroom_ was a good idea?"

"It's the last place he'd ever look for me," Spider-man defends.

It's actually pretty true. Reed narrows his eyes. "And you didn't think hiding from me too was a good idea?"

"Yeah," Spider-man says, scratching at his neck ruefully as he droops his head. "But I have no chance of avoiding you. I know you'll get your revenge and I can't dodge that. But Johnny — Johnny I have a chance of hiding from."

Well, the logic is spot on. "You're absolutely right," Reed agrees. "And speaking of my revenge, I'm going to get it right now."

Spider-man's head flings up. "What?"

"Johnny!" Reed yells. "He's in here!"

Reed beams and steps to one side.

" _Spider-man_!" Johnny shrieks in the background. "You get your red and blue ass somewhere I can whup it!"

Spider-man squeaks at an amusingly high pitch and flees for Johnny's bedroom window immediately.

* * *

 

 

**3.**

Reed's newest security system alerts Ben to the intruder. It's when he follows the tracking symbol to Johnny's bedroom that he finds out that the person came _intruder_ window. Haha, Ben's a total comedian. It's a pity Spider-man's too asleep to appreciate his comedy.

Which begs the question: why, exactly, is Spider-man asleep on Johnny's bed? Ben blinks, thinking it through. The two are friends, yes, but is this something friends do?

"Hey," Ben says, because why ponder when you can ask? "Sleeping Beauty. Wake up."

"Huh?" Spider-man says, and then comically flails in a way that makes Ben regret that his fingers are too stompy to use a StarkPhone — that moment would have been Starkchat _gold._ And wow, Tony Stark needs to stop putting his name on everything. "Oh. Oh. Hi."

Spider-man sounds nervous, like he's suddenly expecting a clobbering. Ben clenches his hands into fists, because he likes to give people what they expect.

"This is pretty odd," Ben says, gesturing at Spider-man, still half curled up on Johnny's covers.

"Oh," Spider-man says again, his voice sounding thick as he sits up. "I, uh. Sometimes I come and talk to Johnny. When— When things get, y'know." He gestures at Ben. "Rough."

Ben stares at Spider-man for a moment. The kid comes to _Johnny Storm_ to talk through his woes? Is his hearing working correctly?

"He's good at it," Spider-man says, obviously feeling he has to defend Johnny. "After my girlfriend died, I didn't think—" He shakes his head, looking away from Ben to finish, "I didn't think life was ever going to be in color again. Johnny— He's—"

"Sometimes he's just what ya need," Ben says. It's probably a toss-up to who looks more startled. Neither of them are particularly very facially expressive. Ben calls it a tie. He grimaces. Feelings are really more Sue's arena. "Yeah, I get it, I guess," he says, roughly, trying not to think about what Spider-man said, because a dead girlfriend is a hell of a burden on someone who _isn't_ also balancing a superhero gig. "It's gotta be nice to have a fellow superhero who's the same age who gets it."

Spider-man's face lurches back in his direction. "I'm sorry you don't have that," he says.

"I've got my family," Ben says, and Spider-man looks away again and his broad shoulders droop. Oh. Oh, something's happened with Spider-man's family. Ben's heart pangs. Johnny winds him up to the ends of the earth, but if anything were to happen to him… The concept is impossible to wrap his head around.

"I meant to stay awake and wait for Johnny to get back," Spider-man says, in a tight distracted tone. "I'm sorry for, uh, being odd—"

"Hey, no," Ben says, firmly, pushing at Spider-man when he tries to get up. "Look, I'm no Johnny, ain't got the looks, definitely ain't got that special low IQ—"

"Ha," Spider-man barks.

"But I've got ears, and a mouth, and a wealth of experience that Johnny calls old age," Ben says. "So spill it."

Spider-man stays still for a moment. Then he says, "I got hurt. Bad." Ben steps forwards automatically. "I'm fine," Spider-man says quickly. "I heal really fast. But—" He sighs. "I couldn't heal fast enough to avoid my, uh— My family member finding me." Spider-man's mask stretches; Ben can picture a wry smile causing the movement. "They didn't know I was Spider-man and then bam, there I was, in full uniform and wrecked mask, bleeding out onto their floor."

Ben can't quite fully imagine that. Not knowing someone you loved risked their life every day, _had_ been risking it for years and years? He tries to picture it, the curl of betrayal, the hit of panic when the implication hits home, and he feels empty with just the thought of it. He hasn't spent much time even thinking about Spider-man's identity. He's just… _Spider-man._

But he's not just Spider-man. There's someone under the mask and the spandex and the jokes. He's young, like Johnny; that much has always been obvious. And he's been out there for years, fighting on his own, and all that time, he's had at least one member of family completely unaware of it. Does _anyone_ know who Spider-man really is?

Ben's heart cracks, just a little bit, for Spider-man _and_ for his loved one. "How are they taking the news?"

"Badly, at first," Spider-man says. "Better, now. She—" He pauses, like even giving his family member's gender is too much, but he pushes forwards. "She said she's known since…" His voice breaks a little. "Since the towers fell."

The silence stretches between them for a moment, painful as it is for every New Yorker who remembers that day, who was out in the nightmare, screaming into the terror.

"Well, you lied to her," Ben says, slowly. "And it's gonna take ya both some time to adjust." That's about all the reasonable adult dialogue he's got in him, apparently, because he continues with, "Kid, you sure you're Spider-man and not Daredevil?"

"I'm not ginger enough," Spider-man mutters.

Ben squints at him. Daredevil's mask-wearer is ginger? And he wears _red_? Is the guy _colorblind_ or something?

"Webby," Ben sighs, "you've got real chutzpah, for a start—" and he drops to sit down next to Spider-man, to maybe ruffle his mask where his hair should be, because it's always what he does to cheer Johnny up, but then there's an ominously loud creak and then the bed just _cracks_. The two tumble to the ground. Spider-man yelps and Ben just starts laughing, unable to stop, because oh man, Johnny's gonna kill the both of them. It's going to be really difficult, Ben reflects, to explain to Johnny what _both_ of them were doing on his bed in the first place.

"Aw, crud," Spider-man sighs.

"I've got an idea," Ben says, getting to his feet. Spider-man follows him up, mirroring his movements, keen to hear what the idea is. "Can I have some of your spider-web?"

Spider-man obliges, thwipping a length of web into Ben's open hands. Ben carefully steps over the remains of the bed and lays the web over Johnny's headboard.

"It dissolves after an hour," Spider-man says. "And I'm not sure whether we can glue the frame back together."

"We don't need it for that long," Ben says. "Johnny's due back from his meeting in about ten minutes or so. When he comes in, he'll see this, and blame you for the destruction."

Ben starts to run as Spider-man figures it out. He ducks as a new string of spider-web is flung in his direction.

"Get back here!" Spider-man yells, and gives chase.

* * *

 

 

**4.**

It's automatic. Just like all the times when they were growing up, and Sue would check on Johnny to see if he was sleeping. Back at the start, when it was just the two of them, when it was new, she would do it every hour, hovering at his doorway and being reassured by every breath he took.

She's at his bedroom doorway before she remembers, and she freezes, eyes locked on the bed. The empty bed. No Johnny-shaped lump. No Johnny-breaths to count herself to reassurance with. The paralysis is disturbed by an exhalation that's not from her lips — Sue's powering up an energy burst before she can even think.

"Hey, hey, no, it's me," a voice says, and it's so familiar that Sue's energy burst dissipates before she can formally will it to. It's familiar but it takes a moment for the sound of it and for the hunched shape leaning against Johnny's bedroom wall to form into a Spider-man whole. Peter's in his suit, but his mask is clenched in his hands, and his eyes are fixed on Johnny's pristine bed like Sue's had been, moments before. "I'm sorry for startling you."

Sue nods, mutely. Her throat's still tight. Speaking in a Johnny-less world is always a trial.

"I just," Peter says, eyes not moving from Johnny's bed, "I was fighting the Rhino downtown."

"Are you okay?" Sue asks, the question ripping out automatically from her wrecked throat. It burns, but it's a good burn.

"Yeah. Yeah," Peter says, in the vague _this-superhero-is-actually-bruised-and-shaken-but-hey-it's-Tuesday-what-are-you-gonna-do_ way. "I just swung in here automatically when I was done, just to say hi." His voice cracks. "Hi, Johnny."

"I keep coming in to check on him," Sue says. It's probably the most words she's said in a row since it happened. She crosses the floor gingerly, feeling every molecule of displaced air keenly. She leans against the wall and lets it take her weight; she sinks until she's sitting against the wall, knees drawn up to her chest. She and Spider-man are bookends. Guardians of Johnny's painfully empty room.

Peter stays silent. Letting her talk.

Sue takes a breath. She finally wants to. "When our parents died, I was so scared, y'know? Here was this— this _lively_ person, and he was my responsibility, all mine— and I was terrified every day I was gonna mess it up." She looks across at Peter, the sharp edges of his profile lit by nothing but moonlight coming in from the window. Turning the light on was too much. Turning the light on made it too obvious that Johnny wasn't here, and hadn't been here for a while. "The first time he climbed onto a motorcycle, I swear, my heart almost tattooed right out of my chest."

Silence falls again. Sue looks back at Johnny's empty bed. Every glance is another heartbreak.

"This just _sucks_ ," Peter says, with feeling.

It's an apt summary. "Yeah," Sue agrees, in that _this-superhero-is-actually-heartbroken-but-hey-it's-Tuesday-what-are-you-gonna-do_ kind of way. "Yeah."

* * *

 

 

**5.**

Ben waits strategically until all the delicate chopping is done for dinner before he asks, "Can I do anything to help ya?" because his control over his own strength is good now, but Sue's upset face when he bends one of her good knives is the _worst._ It's better to time when he asks things; he tends to get Reed-fetching duty, because that sometimes needs heavy lifting. Especially if Reed's elastic neck is fathoms-deep in some experiment or other.

"Hmm?" Sue looks up from her pan and then smiles at him. "Reed's not joining us tonight. Can you fetch the kids, remind them to wash their hands? And maybe you could go and see if Johnny feels like eating?"

She smiles when she says Johnny. It's a tic they've all taken to since his triumphant return from the dead.

"Sure can," Ben says. He figures Johnny will require the most wrangling, so he heads to Johnny's apartment first. He pokes his head in through the front door. "Hello?"

There's no answer, so Ben proceeds cautiously, because he compared war stories with Pepper Potts once, and both of them have a long history of bursting in on unsavory sights; Tony Stark probably has Johnny beat on embarrassing tableaus, but Ben's never going to let Johnny know that. Johnny's hideously competitive, and Ben — well, all of them — are still in that _indulge him in all of the things_ head space since getting Johnny back.

They'll probably all be in that head space for a very long time. Johnny's return is a miracle and they're all painfully aware of how close they came to never seeing him again.

As Ben gets closer, he hears two different voices in Johnny's room, and he slows, because bursting forwards anyway after hearing two voices in Johnny's room had led to more than one eye-bleach-necessary sights. He can't hear any unsightly kissing or moaning, though, so he proceeds. It's only when he gets right to the slightly open door that he recognizes the second voice: Peter Parker.

 _Oh,_ Ben thinks, several things making sense all at once. He pauses and waits politely for the right time to interrupt.

"You gave me your family, dickwad," Peter sighs. "What kind of maroon does something like that?"

"I gave you the best thing I had," Johnny protests instantly, and Ben can't help the grin that cracks his face open. Since Ben's known him, Johnny's always lived to the extremes — when he's bad, he's very very annoying, and when he's good, it's heart melting. "Plus, you needed supervision. When I'm not around, you do stupid things."

"When _I'm_ not around?" Peter's voice pitches upwards. "From the guy who managed to get himself killed in, like, the _one second_ I wasn't watching?"

"Okay, so I do things to greater magnitude, it still doesn't get you off the hook. Point in case, that _hideous_ white and black suit my sister and brother-in-law got you into. What on earth were you thinking?"

"Everyone else was doing it," Peter says.

"White does terrible things to your butt. _Terrible._ "

"I guess," Peter sighs, "but did you really have to _tear_ it from me?"

"I really did," Johnny says, and then, oh. _Oh._ _There_ are the unsavory sounds that Ben had been fearing. He starts to back up and out of Johnny's apartment; difficult for someone with feet his size.

"I wore it because… life was black and white without you," Peter says.

"Same," Johnny says, before the kissing sounds resume.

That's the last Ben can hear; he's too busy fleeing, both for their privacy and his sanity. 

* * *

 

 

**+1.**

Johnny's woken up by two twin weights landing on him at once.

"No, you do it with volume, not presence," Valeria hisses, and then loud, " _Uncle Johnny, wake up_!"

"Ahh, I'm awake, I'm awake," Johnny says, grabbing his niece and nephew by the shoulder, wrestling them down so that he has one under either arm. Franklin yelps and Valeria curls up against his side, smug like a just-fed cat.

"Ah, kids," Peter mutters, from Franklin's other side. Sleep has turned his voice low and rough, warm in a way Johnny can't describe. " _That_ would be why my Spider-senses aren't tingling."

"Huh?" Franklin says.

Johnny opens his eyes to see Peter wincing at him over Franklin; he'd forgotten they were keeping Franklin and Valeria on the down low about the Peter-being-Spider-man thing for the moment. If nothing else, Johnny's ego probably wouldn't take Franklin transferring his loyalty and adoration to his long-term hero Spider-man.

"It's a joke," Peter says. Johnny shrugs at him. Franklin seems to buy it. Valeria looks contemplative, but her default expression is permanently stuck on _I could take over this pesky small planet with just my brain._ Which is why all her Uncle Doom visits are _heavily_ supervised.

"Mom says breakfast is ready and you need to get your tush downstairs," Valeria says. "She said butt first, but then amended it to tush."

"I appreciate it whenever you let me know when my sister slips up," Johnny says. "Long may it continue."

"What are you doing here?" Franklin asks Peter, his skill with tact inherited from his Uncle Johnny.

"Uh," Peter says, and looks to Johnny for help again. "We had a sleepover."

"Are you getting married?" Franklin asks, looking up between the both of them. "That's what adults who sleepover do."

Johnny smiles slowly, enjoying the way Peter flusters. He's _especially_ enjoying the way he can see the pulse in Peter's neck quicken. "If he'll have me," Johnny says, looking Peter directly in the eye so he can see the flustering deepen, a blush creeping from Peter's cheeks to his neck.

"What did I say about proposing in bed?" Peter says, but he sounds a little breathless with the question, instead of the annoyance when Johnny tried to do it mid… vigorous adult sleepover activities.

Unfortunately, Johnny doesn't get to reply, because Franklin and Valeria are already up and yelling, bounding off the bed to run to the doorway.

"Mom! Dad! Uncle Ben! Uncle Johnny just proposed to Peeeeter!"

" _Uncle_ Peter," Valeria corrects, triumphantly.

"Oh, boy," Peter sighs, dragging both hands over his face.

Johnny waits for Peter to lower his hands, before saying, "Would it really be a bad thing?"

Peter's eyes scrape Johnny's face with dawning realization that Johnny's not kidding around, and if the blush had been adorable before, it's beautiful now. Peter's eyes lock with Johnny's and Johnny couldn't look away even if the Sinister Six were descending on the room right now to cause mayhem and mischief.

"It'd be kind of amazing," Peter breathes and Johnny beams and leans in to kiss him. Only to be interrupted by his family cooing and squealing from the doorway.

"Oh my gosh, my little _brother_ ," Sue says, clasping her hands together. "Getting _married._ I think I'm crying, Reed, am I crying?"

"Less of the little," Johnny grouches, but ruins the effect by grinning wildly.

Reed holds Sue by the shoulders, just looking misty-eyed.

"I couldn't be happier for ya," Ben says, giving them double thumbs-up.

"I really wish I was less naked for this touching family moment," Peter says.

Then there's noises of a different kind: the coos turning to _ewwws_ , and then stampeding noises as the five flee from Johnny's bedroom, leaving Johnny and Peter alone.

"It was a joke," Peter yells after their fleeing forms.

"Saying yes?" Johnny asks.

"The nudity," Peter says, and looks back at him. "When did I say yes?" Then a more shrewd expression, " _When_ did you formally ask me?"

Johnny pulls a face; he'd _basically_ asked, did he actually need to say the words?

"Oh my gosh, your expression right now is delightful," Peter says. He presses closer, a delightful warmth. "Of course I'll marry you. If that's what you want."

"It's what I want," Johnny says.

"I've got one condition, though," Peter says.

" _Anything,_ " Johnny says. He's struck then by an instant mental rush of all the times everyone's told him to be careful of saying that, of offering anything to someone, because it's dangerous; Peter could ask something terrible of him, and he would say yes, to whatever it is.

Peter's taking a while to phrase his request. Johnny's almost holding his breath. The _yes_ is on the tip of his tongue, ready.

Peter squints at him. "If we live here, can we finally get some sort of a lock on your bedroom door?"

Johnny laughs. "Yeah. Yeah, that I can do."


End file.
